FotoFest to Host Unprecedented Conference about Art in the Arab World

by Lucia Simek March 27, 2014
fotofest

Sama Alshaibi (Iraq), After the Vote, from the Series Between Two Rivers, 2008
Courtesy of the Artist and Ayyam Gallery, Dubai/London

This year’s FotoFest, called View From Inside: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media, has already garnered a lot of attention for its intense look at the complexities of art being made in the Arab world. “Our focus on Arab art was not motivated by opportunism related to the Arab world’s current prominence in the media,” said FotoFest Co-Founder and Senior Curator Wendy Watriss to e-flux, “but rather by a genuine conviction that the U.S. and Western audiences should have the opportunity to hear from more voices in the region and see the Arab world in more nuanced ways.”

As if the biennial itself weren’t enough to expose Western audiences to those voices, this weekend FotoFest presents a conference at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston called “Visual Arts in the Arab World.” The conference will address the history of art in the region and contemporary issues such as globalization, emerging markets, gender and technology. The conference will bring together a horde of international arts professionals, historians and artists.

It’s also totally free.

Saturday, March 29, 2014, 10am-5pm
Brown Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet, Houston, Texas 77005

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